I have been too distracted to write much lately. This is partly due to the demoralising backdrop of UK politics, and partly because I have been having fun with physics and related matters. This is a quick catch up on a few of the good things from that side. I will avoid the politics, not because it isn’t important but because I am sick of it and we all need a break sometimes.
Read more at the Cosmic Shambles Network
“Broken Symmetries” is an art exhibition at FACT in Liverpool. Spread over galleries on two levels, it provides an audio and visual immersion in a strange frontier of knowledge and its echoes and resonances in wider culture.
The artwork is born of interactions between the science and technology of particle physics, and a number of international artists.
Read more at the Cosmic Shambles network…
This conceptual design report came out today. It looks like an impressive amount of work and although I am familiar with some of its contents, it will take time to digest, and I will undoubtedly be writing more about it in the future.
A couple of quick things now mostly regarding the press coverage so far. There a nice piece here by my old Guardian colleague Ian Sample. As he mentions, the project will be discussed intensively as part of ongoing process to update the European Strategy for Particle Physics. I’ll be involved in that process (many from the UK will, whatever is going on in the House of Commons right now) and I am keeping an open mind. However, as I told Pallab Ghosh in this article, this project would at present be my preferred Plan A.
The thing that surprised me in Pallab’s piece is that Sir David King thinks more research into climate change might save the world.
Life and Physics 